Philadelphia Rowhouse Fire Kills 4 Children

Residents of Southwest Philadelphia joined hands in front of burned-out rowhouses on Saturday. An early-morning fire ultimately spread to eight homes; three 4-year-olds and a baby died.Credit
Akira Suwa/The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — Neighbors gathered outside several fire-ravaged rowhouses here on Saturday, crying and hugging as they mourned the deaths of four children in an early morning fire that ripped through the block.

Four homes were ablaze when firefighters arrived about 2:45 a.m. at the street in Southwest Philadelphia, said Derrick Sawyer, the city’s fire commissioner. The fire spread to eight homes before it was brought under control about 90 minutes later.

The four children — the only fatalities in the blaze — were in one home and appeared to be related, Commissioner Sawyer said. Fire officials identified them as Marie and Mariah Bowah, twin 4-year-old girls; Patrick Sanyee, 4; and a baby, Taj Jacque, who was nearly 2 months old. Five other relatives were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The mother of the twin girls, Dwen Bowah, removed three of her children from the house, but she was unable to save the four other children, said Michael Bonner, a battalion chief. The mother of the two boys who died was not in the house at the time of the fire.

At a news conference on Saturday afternoon, Mayor Michael A. Nutter said the entire city was grieving and praying for the victims.

Dozens of residents were displaced by the fire. A shelter set up at a local high school by the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania had received at least 28 people who were affected by the fire, Red Cross officials said.

At the scene of the fire, on Gesner Street, blackened debris from the two-story rowhouses lay in the street as residents watched workers clear away charred timbers and broken glass. Plastic trim that had melted in the heat of the blaze hung on cars parked across the street.

When the firefighters had completed their work, a group of neighbors — holding hands and with their heads bowed — formed a prayer circle in the street just outside the cluster of burned homes. A dozen white and blue balloons were tied to a pillar on the front porch of one of the homes, and red and white teddy bears were placed on the stoop.

The fire marshal’s office was investigating the cause of the fire, Commissioner Sawyer said. The authorities were examining whether it might have started on the porch of one of the rowhouses and spread to other porches. Investigators were also trying to determine whether residents initially tried to fight the fire themselves instead of calling 911, the fire commissioner said.

Since the fire took place during Fourth of July festivities, rumors spread in the neighborhood that fireworks could have been to blame. Mr. Nutter, the mayor, acknowledged hearing reports from residents that the fire had been caused by a live firecracker falling onto a couch on a porch, but said it was too early to reach any conclusion. He said he would not speculate on the cause of the fire, and that the fire marshal’s office would determine what had happened.

Photo

A woman grieving the deaths of children in a fire in Philadelphia on Saturday.Credit
Akira Suwa/The Philadelphia Inquirer

The mayor urged the neighborhood’s many Liberian residents — some of whom held impromptu prayer meetings for the victims — to support one another in what he said was already a close-knit community.

“We thank them for their support and for keeping their arms wrapped around these family members,” Mr. Nutter said.

One neighbor, Teenamarie Shaw, said her brother-in-law woke her about 3:10 a.m. Saturday and told her that there was a fire on the street. She said she looked out of her front window and saw a couch on fire on the front porch of the house next door. Fearing that the fire would spread to her porch, she gathered her sons, who are 14 and 6, and her 7-year-old nephew and fled through the back of the house into an overgrown vacant lot, along with her husband, her brother-in-law and his infant son.

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Alarmed by the fire’s rapid spread, Ms. Shaw said, she fled the house dressed only in a T-shirt and underwear, and did not stop to collect her purse or any other possessions.

“It was the craziest thing that I ever experienced in my whole life,” said Ms. Shaw, who was dressed in clothes supplied by the Red Cross, which was providing food, cots, clothing and counseling for residents at the high school.

Ms. Shaw, 32, who is unemployed and disabled, said her house, a rental property where she and her family had lived for four years, was destroyed and that she did not know what she was going to do or where she would live next.

Patrice Robinson, who also lives in a rented house on Gesner Street, said that as the fire took hold on one side of the street, she heard children screaming and a man shouting that he would never see his children again.

“They couldn’t get them out, and they ended up passing,” said a tearful Ms. Robinson, whose house was damaged by smoke and water.

Ms. Robinson, 40, a nursing assistant, said she believed fireworks landing on an outdoor couch might have caused the fire. “Two residents told me that fireworks were being set off on the street,” she said.

Commissioner Sawyer said that officials from the fire department had visited the home where the children died last year and installed two smoke detectors. More than two dozen smoke detectors were installed in other homes in the neighborhood.

The fire station is just around the corner from the home, and firefighters arrived there in about three minutes, the commissioner said. They did their best to contain the fire, but it spread quickly and gave off intense heat. The fire fighters were heartbroken, he said, that they were not able to save the children. “Every time we lose a citizen, it’s tough. It’s personal, especially when it’s a child,” Tony Hudgins, a battalion chief, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “And it’s particularly tough when you don’t have a shot to get in there.”

Jon Hurdle reported from Philadelphia, and Emma G. Fitzsimmons from New York.

A version of this article appears in print on July 6, 2014, on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: 4 Children Are Killed as Fast-Moving Fire Hits Philadelphia Rowhouses. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe